Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic the Hedgehog is out on digital and it’s fantastic. I love it. I could be biased because I played the game when I was younger and have recently played it with my son. Sonic the Hedgehog is funny, it’s got a solid cast and is true to its origin and has cool gadgets.

My kids saw it twice at the movies so they were already big fans. I was into it from the get go, maybe even more than I realized. My husband said I gasped twice in the first minutes of the movie but I didn’t even notice.

What I also enjoyed about the movie is that it contextualized some of the aspects of the game that either weren’t explained or I didn’t bother read.

I’ll set out a brief description of the plot, the good and the bad and give an indication of age suitability.

Make sure you watch past the credits to when there is a minute more of the movie.

Sonic the Hedgehog is out on digital and it's fantastic. I love it. I could be biased because I played the game when I was younger and have recently played it with my son. Sonic the Hedgehog is funny, it's got a solid cast and is true to its origin and has cool gadgets.

Sonic the Hedgehog

Do you know that this movie was in development from the 90s. Yoh, I would have loved it then but I think it’s best that it came out now because of the technology and cinamatography being so good.

The movie also uses a lot of pop culture references that really suit Sonic. It’s a perfect age for this movie’s release.

Plot – in brief

Sonic is forced to leave and he is given a bag of rings that will transport him to a different location whenever he’s in trouble and needs to leave where he is.

Sonic now lives outside a small town and while playing a game managed to turn off all the power to the small town. The government realizes something strange has happened and so they send out Dr Robotnik (played by Jim Carrey) to investigate.

Dr Robotnik discovers a Sonic footprint and realizes that it doesn’t belong to anyone or anything. Sonic tries to flee and find a place to use his rings to leave earth. Instead he gets shot by a dart gun and accidentally loses his rings in San Francisco.

Sonic the Hedgehog is out on digital and it's fantastic. I love it. I could be biased because I played the game when I was younger and have recently played it with my son. Sonic the Hedgehog is funny, it's got a solid cast and is true to its origin and has cool gadgets.

Robotnik comes across Sonic and sets out to capture him, dissect him and work out what he’s made of.

The local police office, TomWachowski (played by James Marsden) set out to try get Sonic’s rings back.

Sonic is really annoying, he’s like traveling long distances with a hyperactive child who is really fast. And then he decides he needs a bucket list because it’s his last day on earth and things get chaotic from there.

The Good in Sonic the Hedgehog

Cinematography

The movie is made so well!

The way sonic is integrated into the movie will make kids believe that sonic is real.

The gadgets

To explain how Dr Robotnik does the things he does there are a whole lot of gadgets and technology that have been created. They’re very cool and they make perfect sense to me so to a youngster they must be awesome.

Morals

There are some values and morals hidden under the humour and action.

The three most important have to be

  • the friendship that develops between Sonic and Tom and what friendship entails; and
  • living your life to the full, working through your bucket list
  • how perfect your life is even though you don’t think so.
Sonic the Hedgehog is out on digital and it's fantastic. I love it. I could be biased because I played the game when I was younger and have recently played it with my son. Sonic the Hedgehog is funny, it's got a solid cast and is true to its origin and has cool gadgets.

The Bad

Speed of dialogue

There are times when the cast speaks really quickly, especially Dr Robotnik and you have no clue what he’s saying, although I don’t think it’s that important.

Dr Robotnik

Dr Robotnik is awful and Jim Carrey plays it to perfection, he’s weird and nasty, a great baddie. He’s really awful, in personality, in the way he talks to people and the things he does.

Scary

There isn’t a lot that is scary as the movie moves really quickly and the action scenes are evenly matched.

The only two parts that that may be scary are:

  • towards the end when Tom and his wife are falling down a building; and
  • about 10 minutes after that in Sonic’s battle with Dr Robotnik but you don’t see much of it and Sonic is clearly winning.
Sonic the Hedgehog is out on digital and it's fantastic. I love it. I could be biased because I played the game when I was younger and have recently played it with my son. Sonic the Hedgehog is funny, it's got a solid cast and is true to its origin and has cool gadgets.

Age Suitability

My 5 year old daughter watched it and was entertained for sure. She watched the whole thing even though it didn’t feature a single princess and she picked up some new sayings in the process.

But, my 7 year old son loved it even more. The humour, the action, the script all appealed to him. I would say that if your child liked Angry Birds 2 or Incredibles 2 then they would enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog.

The movie is definitely more interesting to kids who like action and adventure, silly jokes, breaking stuff and the general mischief two guys have on a road- trip.